NBL, round 6 news, results: Pinder led Wilcats upset Kings while 36ers come back to defeat Cairns
The Sydney Kings went down to a Keanu Pinder led Wildcats in Perth while in Cairns, 36ers star Montrezl Harrell produced one of the most dominant performances in recent NBL history to help his team across the line.
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Keanu Pinder produced his best game in Perth colours on Friday night, arguably his best in any club’s colours, to lead the Wildcats to an upset 87-84 win over the Sydney Kings at RAC Arena.
With Bryce Cotton and Tai Webster sidelined by injury, it was supposed to be an easy night for the talent-laden Kings.
But Pinder had other ideas.
He produced an extraordinary performance, knocking down an equal career best 34 points, his biggest score since 2022 when he was playing for Cairns.
He produced 13 points in the third term to get the Wildcats out to a nine-point lead.
Kouat Noi got the Kings in front in the final term, when he produced 11 of his 15 points. But Pinder and the Cats carried the momentum through.
Not kings of the boards
The Wildcats dominance on the boards was a massive difference.
Perth won the battle on the glass 56-35.
Kristian Doolittle led the way with 14 rebounds, and was just one point shy of a fourth consecutive double double.
Six of Doolittle’s boards came at the offensive end, where Perth really took advantage.
They Cats benefitted with 26 from second chances, earned from 27 offensive rebounds.
Sydney had just eight second chance points.
Kings still batting deep
Xavier Cooks produced a third consecutive double double, with 22 points and 11 rebounds.
He had 10 points in the opening term and threatened to blow the game apart.
He was the only one of the Kings starters to reach double figures though.
The Kings bench stepped up again, contributed a massive 56 points.
It’s been an area the Kings have improved in dramatically over the past month,
In the first four games of the season, that next wave of players could manage just 27.75 points per game. Cam Oliver’s 15.25 points per game made up most of those.
Over the next four, that’s improved considerably to 45 points.
Oliver had 17 points.
Who’s stepping up
With Cotton (ribs) and Webster (adductor injury) missing, someone needed to step up if Perth was going to cause an upset.
The Wildcats had not reached 80 points in nine previous outings without Cotton on the court.
At half-time, they were on target to achieve that, and with a 41-44 scoreboard, trailed the Kings by just three points.
Pinder was the game’s equal high scorer at that stage, with 14 points. Next Star Izan Almansa had nine.
The 15 offensive boards, to Sydney’s three, was keeping Perth in the game though. That translated to 14 second-chance points to the Wildcats, against just three for the Kings.
Almansa finished with a season-high 14 points and six rebounds.
HARRELL MONSTROUS IN EPIC 36ERS COMEBACK WIN AGAINST CAIRNS
A stunning performance from Montrezl Harrell dragged the Adelaide 36ers to a brilliant overtime win on Friday night, Kendric Davis getting hot down the stretch as the Sixers ran down the Cairns Taipans in a thriller.
The 36ers trailed by as much as 19 points after a disjointed first-half effort, but Harrell came up big 36 points – a season-high for any NBL player – and pulled down 16 rebounds as the home side rallied to make it nine wins in a row at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
Davis overcame a difficult first half to be a difference-maker when it counted, finishing with 29 points as Adelaide improved to a 5-3 record without injured centre Isaac Humphries (calf).
It was a brave performance by the Taipans, who were on a three-game losing run heading into the match and missing injured stars Tanner Groves (calf) and Taran Armstrong (ankle), with Pedro Bradshaw leaving the game with an ankle injury in the third quarter.
FRANTIC FINALE
With his team trailing by three points with 12 seconds left, Sam Waardenburg was fouled as his lay-up flirted with the rim before falling in and then converted his free throw to take it to overtime at 88-88.
The home side went on a 5-0 run to start overtime and Waardenburg fouled out soon after, Harrell made his fifth block after, but there was more drama to come.
Leading by four points with 10 seconds remaining, Adelaide turned the ball over, but Davis was fouled and drained two shots from the line to secure a famous win.
HARRELL HUGE
Harrell was huge for the home side from the outset, the star import with a game-high eight points at the first break and 15 at the half to be the only Sixer in double figures.
He started on 4-from-4 shooting from the floor and with his teammates struggling on defence, came up with four emphatic first-half blocks.
Harrell knocked down four points in an 11-2 run to start the third term, and lit up the crowd time and time again in his best performance as a Sixer.
LONG-RANGE DAGGERS
The 36ers took the best three-point shooting percentage in the league into the clash, but the stark difference between the sides at the main break was Adelaide’s awful output from long range and the visitors’ brilliance.
The out-of-sorts home side managed 3-from-13 shooting from outside the arc and Cairns launched a series of long-range daggers to be a jaw-dropping 10-from-18 to set up a commanding 16-point lead.
Three Taipans - Rob Edwards, Dillon Stith and former Sixer Kyrin Galloway – had three triples in the first half, while Adelaide’s three-point stars DJ Vasiljevic and Kendric Davis were both a stone cold 0-4, with six and eight points respectively.
The Snakes’ 59 points was their highest first-half total of the season, and the most Adelaide has conceded.
The Sixers finished 9-from-30 from long range, Vasiljevic 2-from-11 and Davis 1-from-8, Edwards leading his side with a team-high 27 points.
PHOENIX FIRE FOR SECOND STRAIGHT
New South East Melbourne coach Josh King will be walking into an outfit “feeling good” after the Phoenix netted a second win in a row, and second of the season, by taking down the red-hot New Zealand Breakers on their home court.
Pulling the pin on former coach Mike Kelly, after an ugly 0-5 start to the season, looks more and more like the right thing to do after recording a mood-lifting 88-62 victory lifted by 26-points from the bench including 13 from Ben Ayre.
With interim coach Sam Mackinnon still in charge, having enjoyed a shock win over Melbourne United in his first game, the Phoenix burst out of the blocks with a 27-point opening quarter and never relented.
Matt Hurt had a team-high 19 points for the visiting team which was playing without start point guard Derrick Walton Jr who is expected to miss at least the next few games with a hamstring injury suffered against Melbourne United.
“Feeling good now,” aid Angus Glover, who had 13 points off the bench himself.
“We put ourselves in that position to be 0-5 and we’re trying to claw back to where we need to be.
“Good start to the weekend, now we’ve got to try and get Illawarra.”
That’s the next challenge for the Phoenix, who will have home court advantage in Saturday’s clash with the ladder-leading Hawks, still without new coach King who is expected to be in charge when they face the JackJumpers in Tasmania next Friday night.
Glover, who joined the Phoenix after winning two titles with the Sydney Kings, conceded it took his time to adjust to his new team but he was starting to find his feet and earn the trust of his teammates.
“I haven’t shot the ball too well at the start of the year,” he said after his season-high performance.
“I’ve always got that confidence as a shooter to go out and shoot. The guys are trusting me to play a bit of point guard at the moment, so it’s giving me even more confidence. I’m having fun with it.”
UNITED STANDS TALL
Competition leaders Illawarra Hawks lost the match and star import Trey Kell III to injury in a 92-87 upset at the hands of Melbourne United at Wollongong’s Snakepit on Thursday night.
Kell crashed to the floor after a collision late in the second quarter and immediately limped to the dressing room in obvious distress.
He was reported to have suffered a hip injury that triggered back spasms.
Kell was courtside in a tracksuit during the latter stages of the game and commentator Derek Rucker noted the Hawks “lost all direction” when their American shooting guard was replaced.
Despite that, Illawarra regrouped and took the game down to the wire. They had a chance to force overtime in the dying seconds, only for Todd Blanchfield’s three-point shot to rim out.
DEJA VU
Melbourne’s win will have rekindled some unhappy memories for the Hawks, who were bundled out of last year’s semi-final series by United. Dean Vickerman’s troops have now won seven of their past eight games against the Hawks.
WILLPOWER DENIED
The result spoiled what was shaping as the best day of Will Hickey’s basketball career.
In the countdown to the game, the Hawks announced they had re-signed the 26-year-old scrapper they call “Davo” for three more seasons.
“He’s a winner,” teammate Wani Swaka Lo Buluk said of Hickey, who had stints with both Melbourne Phoenix and United before belatedly finding his niche in Wollongong.
Entering the match midway through the first quarter, Hickey produced two early dunks and was the first player to reach double figures.
The crowd favourite proceeded to post 17 points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals in a comprehensive all-round performance that deserved a better outcome.
GOLDEN GOULDING
Chris Goulding was in deadly form for United, leading the scoring with 25 points, including five successful shots from outside the paint. The 36-year-old’s hot hand was just what the visitors needed in the absence of fellow veteran Matthew Dellavedova.
HIGH FIVE
Random stat: Illawarra remain the only team in the league to field the same starting five in every game this season. Coach Justin Tatum obviously subscribes to the theory if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Maybe it’s time for a change-up?
REBOUND ACES
Random stat II: Melbourne continued their record of following every loss this season with a win. The next step for last season’s runners-up will be to start stringing victories together back to back.
JUSTIN TIME
It didn’t take long for Tatum to give his players a wake-up call. Barely two minutes into the first quarter, he called a time-out with the scoreboard reading 8-2 in Melbourne’s favour. A few choice words had the desired effect and the home team recovered to lead 21-16 by the first break.
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Originally published as NBL, round 6 news, results: Pinder led Wilcats upset Kings while 36ers come back to defeat Cairns
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